Reply to: Maternal capacity, twinning and fertility: the last birth matters

A Courtiol, C Vullioud, F Rousset, E Postma… - Nature …, 2024 - nature.com
To illuminate why twinning occurs in humans 1, despite its threatening the health both of
mothers 2 and their children 3, 4, we analysed the relationship between twinning and fertility …

An age-dependent ovulatory strategy explains the evolution of dizygotic twinning in humans

WN Hazel, R Black, RC Smock, R Sear… - Nature ecology & …, 2020 - nature.com
Dizygotic twinning, the simultaneous birth of siblings when multiple ova are released, is an
evolutionary paradox. Twin-bearing mothers often have elevated fitness, but despite …

Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe

IJ Rickard, C Vullioud, F Rousset, E Postma… - nature …, 2022 - nature.com
Historically, mothers producing twins gave birth, on average, more often than non-twinners.
This observation has been interpreted as twinners having higher intrinsic fertility–a tendency …

Parity progression ratios confirm higher lifetime fertility in women who bear twins

SL Robson, KR Smith - … of the Royal Society B: Biological …, 2012 - royalsocietypublishing.org
We appreciate the comments by Rickard et al.[1] of our recent paper which evaluated the
effects of bearing twins on maternal reproduction and survival using a large sample of …

Modelling for the inheritance of multiple births and fertility in endangered equids: Determining risk factors and genetic parameters in donkeys (Equus asinus)

FJ Navas, J Jordana, AK McLean, JM León… - Research in veterinary …, 2019 - Elsevier
Multiple births or twinning in equids are dangerous, undesirable situations that compromise
the life of the dam and resulting offspring. However, embryo vitrification and freezing …

Twin births in Jordan: incidence, trends, risk factors and implications for under-five mortality: evidence from the 2012 Jordan Population and Family Health Survey

MM Islam, U Marium - Journal of Biosocial Science, 2019 - cambridge.org
Research on twinning in developed countries is well documented, but little is known about
twinning in less-developed countries due to a lack of data or data limitations. This study …

[PDF][PDF] The evolutionary puzzle of human twinship

A Dalla Ragione, CT Ross, D Redhead - 2023 - ecoevorxiv.org
Natural selection should favor litter sizes that optimize trade-offs between brood-size and
offspring viability. Across the primate order, modal litter size is one, suggesting a deep …

Modelling for the Inheritance of Endangered Equid Multiple Births and Fertility: Determining Risk Factors and Genetic Parameters in Donkeys (Equus asinus)

FJN González, JJ Vidal, AK McLean, JML Jurado… - 2018 - preprints.org
Multiple births or twinning in equids are dangerous, undesirable situations that compromise
the life of the dam and resulting offspring. However, embryo vitrification and freezing …